Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Ph.D (Balu)'s Author Page - Notion Press

Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Ph.D (Balu)

Dr. Balakrishnan (Balu) Mahadevan is one of the key contributors to India’s digital payments transformation and a widely respected practitioner, policy thinker, and scholar. With a career spanning more than three decades across the banking industry, payments infrastructure, global financial institutions, and international development, he brings a rare blend of deep operational expertise, academic rigor, systems thinking, and public-purpose commitment. Dr. Balu played a significant role in conceptualising, designing, and implementing several of India’s foundational payment systems. During hRead More...

Dr. Balakrishnan (Balu) Mahadevan is one of the key contributors to India’s digital payments transformation and a widely respected practitioner, policy thinker, and scholar. With a career spanning more than three decades across the banking industry, payments infrastructure, global financial institutions, and international development, he brings a rare blend of deep operational expertise, academic rigor, systems thinking, and public-purpose commitment.

Dr. Balu played a significant role in conceptualising, designing, and implementing several of India’s foundational payment systems. During his tenure as Chief Operating Officer at the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), he was closely involved in the evolution and rollout of critical national infrastructures, including the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), Cheque Truncation System (CTS), National Automated Clearing House (NACH), Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB), and the RuPay domestic card scheme. His early thinking—captured in a pioneering 2006 paper presented at the Indian Banks’ Association—anticipated many of the architectural principles that later shaped India’s digital payments revolution and the emergence of UPI. He is known for his deep understanding of interoperability, governance, and system design, and for his ability to bring together policy, technology, and institutional execution at scale.

Before NPCI, Dr. Balu worked with Citibank, where he helped implement Citi Global Transfers (CGT) in India—one of the world’s first real-time, cross-border retail payment systems. This experience ignited his lifelong interest in payments and provided the technical and conceptual foundation for his later work. He subsequently served as a full-time employee and later as a consultant to the World Bank, advising countries on digital public infrastructure, instant payments, financial inclusion, and cross-border remittances. His work has influenced national payment strategies and capacity-building efforts across several developing economies.

Dr. Balu holds postgraduate qualifications in Political Science (Public Administration), Business Management, and Bank Management, and a PhD in Finance and Payments. He has authored more than 30 papers on digital payments, interoperability, cross-border systems, digital public infrastructure, and faster payment frameworks. He has also contributed to the World Bank’s flagship reports on global payment systems, retail payments, faster payments, and remittances over multiple editions. His writing is known for its clarity, analytical strength, and ability to translate complex system design issues into accessible insights.

He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), focusing on Digital Public Infrastructure, Digital Public Goods, and their role in enabling inclusive growth and institutional capability building. At IIMB, he also contributes to the Centre for Digital Public Goods (CDPG), working on policy research, strategy, and ecosystem engagement.

Designing Change: My Journey Through Digital Payments Transformation is his first book—an authoritative and deeply personal narrative that blends lived experience, institutional memory, and policy insight to document one of the most remarkable transformations in modern financial history.

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Designing Change

Books by Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Ph.D (Balu)

Designing Change is the insider’s account of how India leapt from a cheque-based system to one of the world’s most advanced digital payments ecosystems. Drawing on more than three decades across government, global banks, NPCI, the World Bank, and IIM Bangalore, Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan (Balu) narrates how systems like IMPS, AEPS, NACH, RuPay, and UPI were built, scaled, and woven into the country’s economic fabric.

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Designing Change

Books by Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Ph.D (Balu)

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Dr. Balakrishnan (Balu) Mahadevan is one of the key contributors to India’s digital payments transformation and a widely respected practitioner, policy thinker, and scholar. With a career spanning more than three decades across the banking industry, payments infrastructure, global financial institutions, and international development, he brings a rare blend of deep operational expertise, academic rigor, systems thinking, and public-purpose commitment.
Dr. Balu played a significant role in conceptualising, designing, and implementing several of India’s foundational payment systems. During his tenure as Chief Operating Officer at the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), he was closely involved in the evolution and rollout of critical national infrastructures, including the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), Cheque Truncation System (CTS), National Automated Clearing House (NACH), Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB), and the RuPay domestic card scheme. His early thinking—captured in a pioneering 2006 paper presented at the Indian Banks’ Association—anticipated many of the architectural principles that later shaped India’s digital payments revolution and the emergence of UPI. He is known for his deep understanding of interoperability, governance, and system design, and for his ability to bring together policy, technology, and institutional execution at scale.
Before NPCI, Dr. Balu worked with Citibank, where he helped implement Citi Global Transfers (CGT) in India—one of the world’s first real-time, cross-border retail payment systems. This experience ignited his lifelong interest in payments and provided the technical and conceptual foundation for his later work. He subsequently served as a full-time employee and later as a consultant to the World Bank, advising countries on digital public infrastructure, instant payments, financial inclusion, and cross-border remittances. His work has influenced national payment strategies and capacity-building efforts across several developing economies.
Dr. Balu holds postgraduate qualifications in Political Science (Public Administration), Business Management, and Bank Management, and a PhD in Finance and Payments. He has authored more than 30 papers on digital payments, interoperability, cross-border systems, digital public infrastructure, and faster payment frameworks. He has also contributed to the World Bank’s flagship reports on global payment systems, retail payments, faster payments, and remittances over multiple editions. His writing is known for its clarity, analytical strength, and ability to translate complex system design issues into accessible insights.
He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), focusing on Digital Public Infrastructure, Digital Public Goods, and their role in enabling inclusive growth and institutional capability building. At IIMB, he also contributes to the Centre for Digital Public Goods (CDPG), working on policy research, strategy, and ecosystem engagement.
Designing Change: My Journey Through Digital Payments Transformation is his first book—an authoritative and deeply personal narrative that blends lived experience, institutional memory, and policy insight to document one of the most remarkable transformations in modern financial history.

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Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Ph.D (Balu)

Designing Change

Books by Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Ph.D (Balu)

Designing Change

Books by Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Ph.D (Balu)

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